The NSW Government has unveiled the draft Recycled Water Roadmap for consultation. It is inviting residents, communities, and stakeholders to have their say in providing more secure and resilient water supplies for decades.
The draft Roadmap sets out a new vision for expanding water reuse across the state where it is safe, beneficial, and cost-effective, ensuring a robust policy and regulatory framework for future projects.
NSW is a national leader in the water sector and has one of the world’s most sophisticated water management systems. It has already leveraged water recycling for a range of non-drinking purposes, and the draft Roadmap looks at removing barriers to increase its use.
As New South Wales continues adapting to the needs of our growing population and changing climate, the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (NSW DCCEEW) expects water recycling to increase significantly across the state in the coming decades.
“It’s clear that any effective strategy for a secure and affordable water supply for NSW needs to consider the contributions of water recycling, now and in the future,” said NSW DCCEEW Executive Director Water Operations and Resilience Ashraf El-Sherbini. “In our water-stressed regions, where desalination is not a viable option, water utilities are considering ways to save precious drinking water by investigating the use of recycled water to increase supplies and boost drought resilience.”
NSW DCCEEW is supporting water utilities in engaging with their customers to hear their views and is starting the conversation on whether highly treated purified recycled water could become part of the drinking supply in the future, subject to community support and appropriate regulation.
Water recycling can play a critical role in helping us drought-proof water supplies, contributing to the delivery of new housing and development in the medium-to-long term, and enhancing the liveability of our cities and towns.
That’s why it’s critical to lay the groundwork now, working closely with local governments and water utilities to ensure the details of the Roadmap meet the community’s needs.
“In Greater Sydney, about 7 per cent of the water supply is recycled, while across the rest of the state, about 13 per cent is recycled – we want to see this figure grow,” said El-Sherbini. “Recycling takes significant pressure off our drinking water for uses like irrigation, toilet flushing and car washing, and has other benefits like decreasing the pollution in our waterways.”
The draft Roadmap examines a range of levers the NSW Government can pull over the next two years, including policy development, regulatory changes, investigation of costs and benefits, and updating guidance that will facilitate water recycling.
NSW DCCEEW identified the current barriers to water recycling through close consultation with Sydney Water, Hunter Water, WaterNSW, private and local water utilities, local councils, peak bodies, universities, and relevant government agencies since 2022. It is now seeking the entire community’s views on actions it can take to address these barriers before finalising the Roadmap in 2025.
“Utilities in both metropolitan and regional NSW are currently engaging with their customers to understand their preferences on the use of recycled water, including the potential to add purified recycled water to their future drinking water supplies,” El-Sherbini said. “Purified recycled water for drinking is used safely in around 35 different cities worldwide, including Perth. However, this pathway would only be considered in NSW after stringent rules and systems were implemented to ensure no risks and that our strict water quality standards were met.”
The Recycled Water Roadmap is one action of the NSW Water Strategy, a comprehensive plan to provide safer, more secure, and more resilient water supplies for NSW over the next two decades and beyond.
To read the draft Roadmap, register for a webinar and make a submission, visit the Recycled water roadmap.
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